maquiladora
got together in 1995 to record songs, moods, ideas, with no
thought of gigging or anything more than private circulation
of tapes among friends. but. things change. all the time,
they change. in 1998 we released our first record”'The
Lost Works of Eunice Phelps”. a second, “white sands”,
was released in 2000, as was an e.p. of six songs from the
album, remixed by makoto kawabata of acid mothers temple and
released in japan. we did a four week european tour in support
of the album and a session for vpro radio in amsterdam. and
this now, our new one, “ritual of hearts”. Recorded
at St. Cecelia's, a former funeral chapel, a children's museum
and the band's living room studio, the songs capture a sense
of intimacy that fills wide open spaces.
“what
we do, it’s, you know, desert music. and that can encompass
a lot of things: psychadelia, folk, rock, a sense of space,
heat, disorientation, escape, release, sky, solitude, peace.
the influence of whatever band is perhaps less important than
the descent into anza-borego from the cuyamacas. or a day
spent in yuma. going up the back road into julian. a shack
out by cima with a world-band radio playing old 78s of ethnographic
field recordings. is this helpful?”
BLACK
BOOK MAGAZINE
"The perfect soundtrack for trips into deep space, Maquiladora's
latest record is folk music reared on NyQuil and too many
viewings of Kubrick's 2001. These reclusive Californians do
for country music what Radiohead did for Brit pop: dismantle
the machine and rebuild it with alien parts. But for every
washed-out guitar and analog synth, there is a warm piano
or rural harmonica to bring you back to Earth. Pass the syrup."
- Andrew Paine Bradbury
ALTERNATIVE PRESS
"Occupying a space between the desolate balladry of Cowboy
Junkies' The Trinity Sessions and Giant Sand's backporch psychedelia,
Maquiladora slow down America's musical heritage to a dirge.
Just like how Codeine slowed down indie rock and punk to their
base elements, Maquiladora play country ballads as if they
were dusty Jimmy Rodgers tracks stretched out like taffy.
Its as if they're inventing a new strain of Americana that
has sucked out all the twang and replaced it with the expansion
space of prog and psychadelia. While everyone else plies tired
tales of whiskey and women, Maquiladora attempt to find new
sonic and lyrical avenues for a music unwilling to shed its
past." (4 of 5 stars)
MAGNET, July 2002
"San Diego trio Maquiladora shares (Neil) Young's
knack for infusing minimalist sketches with a cinematic, wide-open
spaces vibe. Its third album Ritual of Hearts (Better Looking)
has the same stark austerity that marked Young's Sleeps with
Angels, it also contains Giant Sand's Chore of Enchantment
brand of losing-control wooziness. This intersection of manic
folk thrill and drunken psych- with piano, synth, melodica,
mandolin and accordion darting like honeybees - proposes a
craftsman's worldview that, likewise, is deeply passionate."
- Fred
Mills
MAGNET,
Jan. 2002
"Having previously been swept into a dreamlike state
of narco-dependency with this trio's 1999 White Sands album,
we're now left punch-drunk and staggering from its limited,
U.K.-only 45 ["Ritual Of Hearts" single]. Imagine
the dark Oedipus of "The End," the dappled beaches
of Mazzy Star, the spangly stars of Jesus and Mary Chain and
the neu-gospel of Black Heart Procession all rolled up into
a serenity spliff. Single of the year, bar none." - review
of "Ritual Of Hearts" 7-inch single.
________________
Maquiladora is:
Phil Beaumont
Bruce McKenzie
Eric Nielsen
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